Many mobile devices such as cellular telephones, smart phones and the like have the ability to perform network scans to determine radio signal information, such as identifiers associated with nearby cellular base transceiver stations, WiFi™ access points and Bluetooth™ access points. Mobile devices may be further enabled to perform signal strength estimates and other signal measurements. Base transceiver stations and radio access points are primarily used for voice and data service access to the mobile device, but due to their relative permanence can be exploited for other purposes, including determining device location. Mobile devices are frequently further enabled to receive signals from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites for estimating mobile device location coordinates.
A number of approaches exist to translate terrestrial signal information into location, including cell triangulation and trilateration techniques, such as Time Difference of Arrival (“TDOA”), Enhanced Observed Time Difference (“EOTD”), Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (“AFLT”) and Enhanced Cell Identification (“E-CID”). Such methods are considered terrestrial counterparts to the GPS satellite-based system which uses a form of triangulation based on satellite positioning. A mobile device may be configured for determining its own location, or in some cases, a remote system in communication with a mobile device can be configured to determine a mobile device's location using translation methods such as those described above.
A mobile device's location history may be valuable for research or marketing purposes. Mobile device location data is usually generated in the form of an estimated geographic coordinate and a time stamp corresponding to when the geographic coordinate was recorded. Data in such basic form may be insufficient for research or marketing purposes, or for providing services to a mobile device user.
It would be desirable to collect mobile device location data and organize the data into useful form for association with content such as advertising and promotional material related to location. It would further be desirable to organize mobile device location data for the purpose of making predictions and facilitating conclusions regarding a mobile device user's travel behaviors.